Red Cross: Some 72 million living as refugees around globe

GENEVA - Some 72 million people around the world had been
driven from their homes by conflict, natural disasters or big development
projects at the end of last year, the Red Cross reported on
Tuesday.

Nearly 16.4 million had fled abroad and were officially
classified as refugees, while 41.4 million more were living in their own country
as "internally displaced persons," according to the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world's largest disaster relief
network.

The remainder were asylum seekers whose claims were pending or
had failed, as well as refugees who had not registered, the IFRC said in its
annual World Disasters Report.